The 2017 Square Australian Coffee Report

This month we’re celebrating the third anniversary of Square Point of Sale in Australia, and in honour of this momentous occasion we have a gift for you: the 2017 Square Australian Coffee Report. We’re big fans of the popular espresso drink here at Square, and have collected and analysed data from Square sellers across the country to learn more about what others are drinking.

The numbers have been crunched on the millions of cups of coffee sold across Australia to determine the most popular drinks in every state and territory. We’ve identified the average amount spent on our favourite coffees and the new flavour trends that took off this year.

We’ve also done a deep dive on the latte capital of Australia — Melbourne — and looked at different suburbs around the city to see what customers are spending on their favourite brew.

Here’s what we found:

Pricing

The 2017 Square Australian Coffee Report shows us that customer demand and average spend can vary dramatically by state, as seen by latte drinkers in the Northern Territory who spend on average almost $1 more on their beverages than those in New South Wales.

Across the country the most expensive coffees were of the iced variety, with people spending more than $5 on iced coffee in every state. While Aussies were also spending more on mocha and chai, the cheapest coffee across the board was the traditional long black, the only coffee with a national average transaction value less than $4.

Popular brews

While a latte is still the most popular coffee choice across the country, our data showed that sales of flat whites have been steadily increasing, up by more than 22% since 2015, with cappuccinos and long blacks also increasing in popularity.

The past two years have also seen a surge in popularity of coffees infused with cool new flavours, such as matcha and chai. From October 2015 to October 2017, there was a 120% increase in the sales of chai lattes and a whopping 360% growth in the matcha-infused brew.

2017 was the year that also saw more adventurous latte flavours introduced on menus across the country — including beetroot, taro and turmeric. While they all started to show signs of growth in 2017, the biggest spike was seen in turmeric lattes, more than doubling in popularity (120%) between April and July.

The power of data

This report was pulled together using data collected and analysed from millions of cups of coffee sold on the Square platform at cafes and coffee bars across the country. Data insights are extremely valuable to help business owners make smarter, more informed decisions about how to run your business.

Square Dashboard is a free and powerful reporting toolkit available to every Square seller. Sellers can access data in real-time that instantly tells them what products are selling the best, the average transaction size per customer, the frequency of customers, sales per employee and how multiple locations are tracking.

“Having a business that is expanding across multiple locations with growing staff needs means we need a business system that is easy to navigate and scalable. With Square’s platform we can use the powerful reporting tools to pull sales reports by time, location or employee. This specific information makes handling our operating hours and inventory a lot easier.”

Want to get started? It’s simple. To access your sales history and start analysing your business data, download the free Square Point of Sale app and you’ll be up and running in minutes.